BUDGET/CRISIS/TEXAS: “Long before Hurricane Harvey hit in late August, government engineers were working on an array of projects designed to shield this flood-prone region from high water.
But the record-setting tempest—which swamped the nation’s fifth-largest metro area, killed dozens and caused tens of billions in damages—changed the future of flood prevention in the region.
Officials in Harris County, which includes Houston, are considering a potentially billion-dollar bond issue that could fund more flood-mitigation projects, a new storm-water reservoir and swifter buyouts of flooded homes.
Already, Harris County commissioners last week approved $20 million in an effort to buy out an initial group of more than 200 homes flooded by Harvey.
County engineers are reassessing flood-prevention projects in the works, to see if they could handle a storm of Harvey’s might.
And the region’s top elected leaders now say that Harvey—along with two other extreme floods that swept through the area since 2015—have forced them to consider that such disasters may not be so rare after all.”
-Dan Frosch, “After Hurricane Harvey, Texas County Rethinks Flood-Prevention Efforts,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 2, 2017 09:31am